


The Space Between

by vaguelyobscene



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Real World, Barry Allen Video Game Developer, I'm Bad At Summaries, M/M, Oliver Queen Bodyguard, no superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-05 01:35:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12180357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguelyobscene/pseuds/vaguelyobscene
Summary: My take on the prompt 'Imagine Ollie being the security guy for the nerdy Barry, who happens to be some sort of computer genius that loves vídeo games and is very famous.'





	The Space Between

**Author's Note:**

  * For [natalemarine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/natalemarine/gifts).



> I wrote part of this months ago when it was first brought up, then life happened and my muse abandoned me. Like Ollie, I'm not really a gamer and I don't know if this is even what they wanted but I finally finished it and figured it was worth posting. As always my work is unbetaed so all mistakes are my own and I won't be offended if you point them out.

It was a beautiful L.A. night, warm and enticing with that soft breeze rolling in from the Pacific. The air felt heavy and thick with the promise of rain but so far the dark clouds blanketing the city had yet to open up. Oliver was glad to be home and didn't really mind that taking the red eye back from New York had slammed them with a serious case of jet lag. It didn’t help that they’d gone straight to the airport after a long day of meetings, followed by an evening full of schmoozing and networking with other video game execs, with hardly a break in between.

His eyes burned, there was a knot at the base of his neck, and Oliver would’ve loved to stretch his arms or roll his neck but it might dislodge the young man snoozing on his shoulder in the back seat. Normally he wouldn’t allow a client to use him as a pillow but in the eight months he’d worked for Barry Allen, he came to realize that boundaries were not a thing the young gaming mogul did. Not physically or emotionally, despite how much he had tried to maintain a professional distance. From day one the kid had hugged him, choosing to treat Oliver like an old friend instead of his security detail. Clearly he drew no lines between employees and acquaintances.

If you asked Thea she’d readily admit that her brother was a frustrating blend of stubborn, secretive, rebellious, and neurotically organized. She would also be quick to say that he has a stupidly big heart since there’s nothing he wouldn't do for someone he cares about and he always seems willing to put himself at risk to protect others. But she would never assume he could bend under pressure or change to fit anyone else so Thea would be very surprised to hear about the concessions Barry had gotten Oliver to make in their time together.

Dressing casually to fit the relaxed atmosphere of Allen’s gaming company — he’d seen Cisco Ramon show up in a Rocket raccoon onesie on a day that was _not_ Halloween and no one batted an eye — was simple enough even if the plain clothes occasionally made him forget he was on duty. Dropping the formal ‘Mr. Allen’ in favor of ‘Barry’ was a more difficult habit to break though he eventually got the bodyguard to adapt. 

The physicality was the hardest thing to accept but Barry was a hugger and when he realized Oliver wasn’t, he toned that down and settled for incidental touches that strangely felt no less intimate. It was hard to not become somewhat platonic when the young CEO ignored his stoic responses and just continued talking, letting Oliver into his thoughts in that stream of consciousness style he had which was in no way deterred by Queen’s lack of reciprocation.

He wanted to reciprocate.

The hardest part shouldn’t have been holding back, but it was and he had to because Oliver couldn't afford to be any closer to him...

Which felt impossible when Allen seemed to be close with _everyone_. Barry had this open, easygoing energy that overflowed with warmth and interest. He’d seen the head of STAR Labs speak to everyone from the head of graphic design down to their newest intern with the same respect and earnest engagement. Barry seemed genuinely invested in every aspect of his job and all the people who worked for him to the point that Oliver didn’t know how he had the capacity to care about so many details, being fully involved in both the creative and business sides of the multimillion dollar gaming franchise.

Somehow he did and it's no surprise that the world loved Barry Allen, though Oliver would rather strangle himself with one of those stupid hipster scarves H.R. wore than admit that he could see the appeal. The kid was beautiful — all lithe limbs, charming awkwardness, and warm hazel eyes paired with a smile whose brilliance could rival the sun. Physical attractiveness aside, Barry was the epitome of a cool nerd and that seemed to be all the rage these days. Anyone with a passing interest in video games knew his name and even folks who never so much as touched a console were aware of Barry if they had any form of social media.

Between Twitter and Instagram he had millions of followers eagerly awaiting his latest quip, concept design or quirky Snapchat. He even did the occasional YouTube collaboration and was featured in a few Buzzfeed and Clevver articles so there was rarely a time when Allen was out of the public eye. In the last two years he’d become a household name whether you were into gaming or not.

Unfortunately the kid was too nice and approachable for his own good, which is where Oliver came in. There’d been a mob scene at E3 last year that prompted his friend and head of HR at Star Labs to bully her boss into hiring protection, at least for any future events of a similar scale. Caitlin had handpicked the former Marine turned private security guard since he had great references from one of their partners, Palmer Tech.

Barry was the one who decided to employ him on a more regular basis and while he didn't truly need Oliver watching his back at stagnant charity dinners or innocuous fro-yo runs, he claimed to enjoy his presence. Barry told him once that he found Ollie’s stoicism to be a soothing foil to his own hyperactive energy, like having the gentle buzz of white noise in the background. Oliver wasn't quite sure how to take that but it had made him feel inexplicably good.

By the time they rolled through the gates of Allen’s Malibu mansion those dark clouds had finally broken and heavy rain splattered car windows, soaking Oliver through in a matter of minutes when he slipped out to grab his employer’s suitcase. He didn’t expect Barry to follow or reach past him to take Oliver’s own bag from the trunk.

“What are you doing?” he questioned, regarding the other male apprehensively.

Barry merely slung the duffel over his shoulder and shrugged, explaining very reasonably, “We’re both exhausted and you live all the way across town. Just crash here. It’s not like we aren’t going to the same place tomorrow.”

Somehow he felt like he didn’t have much room to argue but Oliver tried to protest anyway, at least until Barry reached out and grabbed his bicep, adding in a soft voice that was difficult to pick up over the pounding rain, “Please… Stay? I hate being alone on stormy nights like this.”

Put like that, he didn’t really have the heart to deny the request.

The town car left and he was alone with Barry in his pristine sea of modern lines and monochromatic style that was broken only by the startling pops of crimson and yellow. He’d been to the house plenty of times before but had never spent the night or even seen much beyond the living room and home office. The sprawling, beachside estate was fully automated with a system that responded to Allen’s voice because the computer genius had designed it himself. The whole thing made Oliver uncomfortable; who knew what IRIS was absorbing while waiting for a command from her creator? Barry swore that wasn’t how the program worked but Oliver still found the concept unsettling.

Staying here rang internal alarms that screamed ‘bad idea’ yet all it had taken to ignore those instincts were Barry’s hopeful eyes and the note of pleading in his tone. Ollie was a goddamn pushover for this kid and he knew exactly why, was aware that he should’ve resigned months ago when he realized that Barry inspired an affection that went beyond friendly. He’d never allow that to affect his work but he felt wrong for wanting a client at all, let alone someone as pure and sweet as Allen. Oliver felt had lost too much of himself overseas, was too jaded and damaged to have anyone so good in his life. He was sure he’d ruin things like he had with Felicity. It was better to keep the feelings buried and he considered it just another way he protected Barry Allen.

Queen prided himself on being a paragon of discipline and restraint, yet there was something about spending the night here that worried him. It blurred the lines between them even further and the soldier didn’t completely trust himself. If he got too comfortable in Barry’s home, if his grip on the reins loosened a fraction, what might come of it? Would he expose the vulnerability he had for those piercing green eyes or graceful hands that never seemed to stop moving? If that happened and there was any sign of reciprocation, Ollie didn’t think he could be strong enough to say no.

He should have insisted on going home.

Instead Oliver settled into one of the four extra bedrooms Allen’s estate possessed, changing into the pajama pants and loose cotton tee he’d packed for their latest trip back east. Hopefully it would be the last for awhile now that Barry had finalized the deal with an indie gaming company in Ithaca. You’d think he would be used to long flights and sleeping in strange beds but Ollie still hated it. Admittedly he was more comfortable in Allen’s house than he would've been in a hotel and was having a hard time not enjoying the ridiculously high thread count sheets or the eye mask in the nightstand that smelled sweetly of lavender.

Drifting off in the cocoon of such luxury was much easier than he expected despite the faint current of disquiet thrumming in his veins. He wasn’t sure how long he was out or what exactly roused him — another peal of thunder or lightning? Either way, it was still dark and stormy when the marine roused, pushing off the lavender mask and blinking blearily in the low light.

Nothing seemed amiss when he slipped out of bed to find the bathroom and he might’ve gone back to sleep if a soft sound didn’t catch his attention in the hall. Oliver hesitated briefly but eventually turned away from the bedroom, following the noise deeper into the house. He found Barry in his home office, perched halfway on the teetering point of his desk chair and typing away so furiously that he didn’t register Oliver’s arrival at all. 

The multiple console desktop setup displayed clean lines of white against a stark black background that meant he was busy coding and for a minute Ollie just watched as elegant fingers flew over the keyboard at lightning speed. The lines of CSS that were intelligible to the soldier reflected in the creator's black-framed glasses, Allen’s brow furrowed intently and teeth dug into his lower lip as he worked. The seriousness of the tableau was a little soured by those galaxy pajama pants paired with a Star Trek tee but the affection this scene stirred in his chest made Oliver uncomfortable.

Every cell in his body urged him to approach, to massage the shoulders that spent way too long hunched in front of a computer screen even on his off hours. He knew exactly where that gesture could lead though, if they let it. He imagined it wouldn’t be very hard to entice the overachiever back into bed if he did it that way, sweet and distracting...

The thought filled his body with warmth, made him shift longingly as his skin suddenly felt too tight, and that small movement was enough to break Barry’s focus. He glanced over and a genuine smile lit his face as he took in the protective shadow lingering against the doorframe.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” he asked, brows raising inquisitively.

“Hardly. I was woken up by you thinking too loudly in here,” Oliver accused with a smirk.

Green eyes narrowed but the expression was softened by the grin Barry couldn’t contain. “Smartass.” He said it so fondly that Ollie couldn’t help taking it as a compliment. “You still look pretty out of it though, you should go back to bed.”

“You first,” challenged the bodyguard.

Barry rolled his eyes. “Just because you get to tell me what to do on certain occasions doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to boss me around.” Except it kind of did and more often than not, he actually did listen since Oliver tried to take better care of Barry than he did himself. So when he didn’t respond and fixed Barry with a steely blue gaze, he crumbled after a few moments and conceded, “Fine… But if you want me in bed so badly, you’re gonna have to do me a favor first.”

The words had been meant innocuously, he was sure, and yet Oliver was actually fighting the urge to blush despite the heat suffusing his body at the thought of favors which could get Barry into bed. The developer didn’t seem to notice and was already out of his seat, grabbing a couple of things that he only vaguely recognized as VR equipment before beckoning the wary older man closer.

“I’m not a gamer,” he insisted once again as Barry held the headset out to him. He didn’t move to take it, regarding the device with apprehension.

The little frown that flickered over his lovely face was chased away by a heavy sigh and a wry smile. “You know it breaks my heart a little every time you say that… I’ll feel better about shutting it down for the night if you test this latest build for me though,” Barry explained even as he stepped closer to start putting the headset on his reluctant volunteer. 

“The great thing about VR is the level of accessibility; anyone can get into it because it’s much easier to navigate than console gaming. Not as many buttons to mash. You’ll be fine,” Barry assured him. Oliver didn’t fight it as black encompassed his vision and agile fingers tugged straps into place, settling the VR headset more comfortably around him. “It could even be helpful, having the input of someone who doesn’t really play video games. We’re going for universal appeal with this one.”

Not being able to see made it feel like Barry was so much closer, those words spilling warm across his cheek as he adjusted the device. The unintentional intimacy had him swallowing hard around the lump in his throat and he was relieved when the developer backed off, the sound of computer keys clacking for a second before the game flickered on and the virtual world flared to life around him. It looked like he was standing on the rooftop in a futuristic city made of neon glowing lines and despite his claims, it reminded Ollie a bit of the old Tron games but on a way more impressive scale.

He was so busy marveling at the beautifully crafted virtual landscape that he missed Barry’s approach until warm hands curled around his and Oliver’s breath hitched. He felt the younger man pause but a second later he continued, pressing a bluetooth remote into his hand. Barry explained how to aim and use the joystick to switch between weapons, his fingers curling around both device and player as he showed Oliver the correct button to hit when he wanted to fire.

“The one in your left hand is just the shield so all you need to do is hold down the trigger and move your arm to deflect an attack,” Barry explained, those distracting fingers now locked around his wrist as he showed the non-gamer what to do with the other remote. 

All too soon he stepped back and said, “It’s pretty simple - the objective is to survive the waves of alien attack as long as possible. If you get hit three times, you’re done. In the end I think we need a more compelling storyline but once we figure that out, it should be a nice tie-in to our Legends of Tomorrow series.”

More keys were being hit and words ‘...Ready?’ unfurled in mid-air before ticking away to ‘WAVE 1’ and suddenly there were some ships in the distance, hovering in midair as they drew closer. It all looked so strangely, incredibly real that it was easy to forget he was playing a game and a quick glance down at his hands in the VR world revealed a shimmering blue outline of a shield in his left, along with a wicked-looking machine gun that crackled with otherworldly energy. He began to fire jets of bright light at the alien forces and they returned with lasers of brilliant red but his reflexes were swift as he brought one arm up to shield himself, using the other to give the invaders hell.

Great hand-eye coordination was a skill the former soldier possessed so it wasn’t too hard to transfer that to the game once he got used to the depth perception in this new world. As the levels progressed it became increasingly harder and the open world setting of that rooftop made it easy for the invaders to come at him from any angle. Oliver adapted though, twisting and ducking as he relied heavily on his shield while cycling through the game's cache of futuristic weapons in an attempt to both experience everything and find the most effective ones to use against the aliens.

His favorite proved to be a crossbow that fired off explosive arrows of jet-blue light and he used it to pass wave after wave of invaders, the difficulty growing with each stage. Oliver hardly realize how seriously he was taking the whole thing until he was more than a dozen waves in and had taken 2 hits, becoming paranoid about the third in an effort to preserve his life. He was actually sweating a bit as he hit the 17th wave and the ships came at him, faster and heavier than he could swing to keep up with the onslaught.

A third laser snaked past the edge of his shield and he cursed as the ‘GAME OVER’ flashed across the screen while the enemies faded away. Beneath his score there were a bunch of numbers and percentages that didn’t mean much to him except for the part under ‘hits’ that read 97% accuracy and made him feel strangely proud since wasn’t even real. Oliver reached out to nudge the headset up and out of the way, wincing a little at how bright the real world felt compared to the darker virtual landscape he’d come from.

He blinked and sought out the game developer who stood just a few feet away, watching him with an obvious interest that made Ollie want to squirm. He held out the game remotes and muttered, “I told you, this isn’t my thing.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Barry exclaimed enthusiastically, taking the accessories and setting them aside on the desktop. “That was amazing! _You_ were incredible! No one has even gotten that far yet. I was going to cap it at 25 levels but you’re seriously making me rethink that decision.”

While it sounded like he’d unintentionally created more work for the gaming mogul, he seemed so pleased that Oliver couldn’t help smiling as Barry tugged the equipment off for him. Hands lingered, smoothing back close-cropped blonde locks that had gotten mussed by the gaming headset, until his touch drifted lower and ghosted the curve of his jaw. There was a bit of hesitancy in startlingly green eyes but it wasn’t enough to stop that far-from-clinical brush of fingers across his skin and Oliver couldn’t help the dreamy way his eyes closed or the thrill of warmth that accompanied the gesture.

That slight response seemed to be enough to embolden Barry and he heard the expensive headset thud to the carpet as he let the gear go and settled his palms firmly against a stubbled jaw, both caressing and trying to draw him closer. “Ollie?” he questioned, sounding so soft and unsure despite the bold press of his hands and the encroaching distraction of the lithe body that nearly molded itself to his front.

Before he could even really think about it, hands settled on Barry’s waist and one of them slipped around to curve against the small of his back. He wanted to bring Barry in even tighter and eliminate every inch between them until he couldn’t breathe around the invasion of the beautiful man in his personal space. He wanted so fucking much that it dried out his tongue until he couldn’t speak even though he knew this was a moment when he should use his words. There was a lot he needed to say to Barry but he felt so damn lost when those green eyes were gazing up at him, worlds of affection and amusement dancing in their depths.

“I can’t-” he began, thinking of his job and the lack of professionalism and how this had spiraled so out of his control. Oliver had never fallen so far and was ready to be angry at himself but all of that built-up bluster dissipated when Barry leaned in to catch the more stoic male’s lips with his own.

“There’s no can’t,” Barry insisted when he broke away a heartbeat later to catch his breath. He went on to say that he’d accept it if Oliver wasn’t interested but refused to acknowledge the possibility that they couldn’t.

So many arguments about why they didn’t — why they _shouldn’t_ — work died on his tongue the second it touched Barry’s and the warm, slick slide made him groan involuntarily. All the fight drained away as Oliver gave in to the kiss, greedy palms slipping beneath fabric to find purchase against his employer’s skin and it was difficult not to give in to the pounding demand of lust that pulsed excitedly when Barry arched into his touch. 

The beautiful man tasted deliciously like popcorn and spice and caramel, pretty much everything that he wanted to sink into and never let go of. Ollie truly couldn’t recall ever being so thoroughly kissed and knew that it would be impossible to stop this, to put the brakes on their connection, so it wasn’t very hard to let go of any lingering reservations.

They were done playing and yet Oliver had a feeling their game was just beginning. Good thing he already had the high score.


End file.
